Life After Death
by mizz-shy-gurl
Summary: This goes away from the epilogue, but still includes James, Albus and Lily. What do we do after the death of a loved one? How do we go on? Character death at the start. Please read and review. Rated M for later chapters. Involves cutting.
1. Chapter 1: A Horrible Beginning

**(A/N): This was inspired from the James Blunt song, "Carry You Home". Please read and review. Just to warn you, it starts with a character death.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any characters you recognise or any places you recognise. Those belong to J K Rowling.**

**Chapter 1**

"**I'm sorry. We tried all we could but we couldn't save her. She lost too much blood too quickly."**

**There was a wail from behind him, but Harry was too numb to notice. How could she be gone, his beautiful, sweet, fiery Ginny. Hands clasped him by the shoulder, but he didn't turn round. At 27, he was a widower with two, no three now, children to look after.**

"**You can see her now if you want."**

**Harry said nothing, but followed the Healer. Mrs Weasley, tears still streaming down her face, also came.**

**There she lay, as if asleep. She was still so beautiful in death, her fire red hair streaming over the pillow. Harry slowly made his way over to the bed and clasped her hand. That was when the tears started. Mum, which Mrs Weasley made him call her, pulled him into a hug as the two of them cried their sorrow.**

**A few minutes later, another Healer came over to them and asked Harry, "I know this isn't a good time, but would you like to see your daughter now?"**

**Harry started. In his sorrow, he had forgotten his daughter. The daughter Ginny had died giving birth to. They hadn't even had the chance to name her. Harry nodded and the Healer came back over with the most beautiful baby girl Harry had ever seen. She already had Ginny's red hair an almond shaped brown eyes. He was always overawed by these miracles. The Healer handed her over to him and he said, "Hello Lily I'm your daddy."**

**His heart was broken, but he still had his children to look after. Dad, which was what Mr Weasley made Harry call him, had taken James and Albus with him, but this was a temporary relief.**

**The Healer who had given Lily to him came back over and said, "You can take her home today if you want."**

**Harry nodded. This would be the first day of his new life without Ginny.**

**The others came in to say goodbye to Ginny and to meet Lily. Harry took Lily outside to see James and Albus. When he crouched down with Lily in his arms, he said, "I have two things to say." They nodded. "The first is that this is your new baby sister. Say hello to Lily."**

**They looked into his arms and said hello to her. Harry gathered himself internally for the next thing he had to say.**

"**Boys, the other thing I have to say is that mummy isn't going to be coming home with us. Do you want to say bye to her?"**

**Again they nodded, and all of them, including Dad, went in to see Ginny. Ron took Lily from Harry and Harry lifted James and Albus up to see their mum.**

**James and Albus hugged her and James said, "Bye mummy. I hope you come back soon."**

**It was almost too much for Harry. Hermione saw this and took Harry outside. He couldn't help it, and started crying again. Hermione out her arms around him as much as her large bump would allow, and Harry was comforted by this. He has always known that he had the best friends in the world.**

"**It's ok Harry. Ron and I are always here for you." Hermione said as Harry continued to cry. He nodded to let her know that he knew.**

**Finally they had to leave, taking Lily with them. They went back to the Burrow, Hermione first going to collect Rose from her parents. The whole family spent the night there, knowing that their lives would never be the same again now that Ginny was gone.**


	2. Chapter 2: Funeral and Routine

(A/N): Sorry to all Ginny fans, but she needed to go for this story. Please don't hate me. Please review, as I need to know what you like and what you don't like from the story. Oh, and from now on, there will be cutting and mentions of abuse, just to warn you.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Chapter 2

The next morning the sympathy cards started to arrive. These did include their true friends, such as Neville, Luna, Andromeda, Dean, Seamus, Minerva, Hagrid and Draco, but most of them were from people Harry had never heard of. The ones who only cared because it involved the famous Harry Potter. The ones who had heard it from the evening Prophet.

They looked outside to see a sea of reporters at the gates. Harry wouldn't give them the satisfaction of going out, but the reporters caused problems for everyone staying there. Harry thought back to the war, where he had caused a lot of problems for the Weasleys by being there. Guilt threatened to overwhelm him again.

Harry tried to keep James, Al and Lily away from the reporters. They were too young to deal with it. He spent the days with all the children there, Victoire, Richard, Amelia, Rose, Charlie's son Ryan, James, Al and Lily. Andromeda also took Teddy there most days, and Harry took comfort from his ten-year-old godson. Teddy had also started to get a crush on Victoire, and the eight-year-old obviously had a crush on him.

At the same time, they had to plan the funeral. It was normally Harry and mum, and it was this that Harry found hardest. He remembered the last funeral he had attended after the battle of Hogwarts. He had been asked to speak, and found it hard. This was going to be so much worse.

The day of the funeral finally arrived. The day was the opposite to Harry's mood. It was warm and sunny without a cloud in the sky. There was a warm breeze to make it just a nice temperature. If the weather had been Harry's mood, it would be overcast and teaming with rain. Either that or freezing cold with ice on the ground.

Hermione's parents had agreed to take the kids, and Harry was so grateful. He hadn't wanted James, Al or Lily to come to the funeral. They would be back at the Burrow afterwards with everyone else though.

They dropped them off using Side-Along Apparition and were soon back. All too soon it was time.

Apparating to the site of the funeral, which was a kind of Wizarding cemetery, they talked to the person who would be taking the service. People started arriving and were greeted. Neville with his girlfriend, Luna with her husband and daughter, Seamus with Parvati, Dean with Lavender. They all saw the bleak look in Harry's eyes and their hearts went out to him.

The funeral started. The minister said a few words, readings were said, mum and dad talked about Ginny. Then it was Harry's turn. He stood up and walked to the front. Clearing his throat he started.

"I first met Ginny when I asked mum how to get to the Platform. She was excitable and I thought she was cute. I got to know her during the summer before second year, but she was embarrassed around me. This continued until fifth year, when I truly became friends with her. This changed to love in sixth year, and we finally got together. Due to the war we had a break, but when we got back together, we were stronger than ever. She was warm, friendly and kind. She knew just what to say to make you feel better. Her laugh was contagious, but when she was angry, you didn't want to be in her way. The world will be a much colder place without her."

Tears were rolling down his face by the end, and his voice cracked. He sat down as the minister said his final piece and the coffin containing his beautiful, vivacious Ginny sank into the ground. With this, the funeral ended, and everyone got up to go to the Burrow where everyone would congregate. The kids were collected, and they got back about the same time as everyone else.

One of the first things that happened was that Teddy, who had been told of Aunt Ginny's death and saw the hurt in Uncle Harry's eyes, went up to him and gave him a hug. "It's going to be ok Uncle Harry." he said, and Harry managed a smile.

A while later everyone went home. This included the Weasleys, but not Harry, James, Al and Lily. Harry knew this was the last night he would be here, as he was going back to work in a week's time, and he needed everything sorted at home. They stayed in the same room, and Harry knew he wouldn't have lasted the night if he was alone.

The next morning they said bye to mum and dad before going home. From then on, Harry went through the motions mechanically. He felt so dead inside. Ginny had always been the strong one, the one he relied on. He had never known you could feel so much pain and live. There was a huge black hole inside him.

Hermione came over every day. She was on maternity leave and Harry couldn't help but feel scared for her after what had happened to Ginny. Not that he actually told her about it. He didn't say much of anything to anyone. He knew that Hermione and Ron were worried about him. He didn't do anything which would make them worried about him though until the night before he went back to work, and then he didn't tell them about it.

James, Al and Lily were all in bed fast asleep. He felt so much pain and he needed to let it out. He knew how to do it as well. Taking a razorblade from the cupboard, he locked the bathroom door and dug the blade deep into his skin just above his wrist. He drew it across his skin and watched as his blood swelled out. He looked at the scars already on his arms, which were so fain the had to look hard, and thought back to the first time he had cut himself.

**!FLASHBACK!**

Harry had been dreaming and didn't notice that he had burnt the bacon. Uncle Vernon was furious and dragged a nine-year-old Harry into the hallway and beat him. Harry had been used to being beaten, but this was his worst yet.

Uncle Vernon had then thrown Harry back into his cupboard when Harry had started coughing up blood. As he had been thrown in, his arm had caught a mirror, bringing it down and smashing it. Harry had stared at the pieces of broken glass around him, and picked up the sharpest piece he could find. He attacked hi arm once, twice, three times, and had felt the pain flowing out with the blood.

**!END OF FLASHBACK!**

This had been the first of many times. Almost every day, even when he had gone to Hogwarts he had continued. He never let his friends know though. When he started going out with Ginny, though, he had managed to stop. Obviously he had had to tell her, and she had supported him. Now she was gone he couldn't handle it any more. He made sure he didn't go too deep, but deep enough to get the relief he needed.

He put a bandage on it, which he would take off in the morning, and put a glamour spell on his arm to cover it.

Tired through loss of blood, he got a couple of hours sleep until Lily woke up to be fed. This happened a couple of times that night.

The next morning he dropped the three off with mum's and went off to work. He got through it, and soon a routine emerged. In the morning, he would drop off the kids, go to work, collect the kids at the end of the day, get them to bed, cut himself, then sleep until Lily woke.

The only time this routine was interrupted was when Hermione gave birth a month later to Hugo. He had actually been jealous that Hermione had lived while Ginny had died. Then he felt horrible for this and cut himself more.

The routine continued for years. James, Al and Lily grew up and went to Wizarding Primary School. Finally it was time for James to go to Hogwarts. They got his stuff in Diagon Alley and James eventually got to sleep on August 31st. He couldn't wait for the next day. Harry felt proud, but was in pain that Ginny couldn't be here for this. He cut himself more that night and went to bed to be ready for tomorrow.


	3. Author's Note

Author's Note Author's Note

**I am sorry to everyone who has been waiting for more of my stories. Real Life has eventually caught up with me. I now have a full-time job, and am only able to write at lunch times. I have written more chapters, but I just haven't had the time to type them up. Please forgive me.**


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